"Would you like to dance?" Jonouchi asked out of the blue.
Haru's head snapped up in surprise, since she's only been asked that question once before in her entire life. "Really?"
He gave her a cocky grin while holding out his hand. "Sure, just for fun."
Haru offered a smile in return while placing her hand in his and standing up from the bench that had been scooted against a wall. "We both know Mai's just teasing you again."
The tall blonde seemed relieved at her easy response and led her out to where most of the townspeople were twirling around in time to the lively jig provided by the town's musicians.
It was slightly awkward on Haru's end, since new school teacher or not, everyone in town knew that Jonouchi was going to marry her cousin when she admitted to herself that the town favorite was the only guy that could ever keep her attention.
But Haru still thought that flirting with the foreign schoolteacher was a step too far, even if he was surprisingly an even better dancer than vocal instructor.
Jonouchi started the dance fairly low key, since Haru didn't have a lot of practice dancing and he didn't want to run the same fate as her previous partner years before. Haru paid more attention to where she was putting her feet this time, trying to match his beat and let herself enjoy the novelty of being in someone's arms.
Then he threw her beat off by sidestepping too much to the left.
"Jonouchi," she said a little worriedly, but he made a shushing sound, clearly focused on something else. It was all she could do to just follow along, almost unable to keep her steps from looking like normal steps.
Then he unexpectedly twirled her around, a flurry of confusion as she felt a taller girl's back against her own for a brief instant. Next thing Haru knew, she was the one in the schoolteacher's arms.
It was then that the poor girl understood why the town's favorite had really asked her to dance.
"Oh! Like, hi, Miss Haru," the tall lanky man greeted her with surprise, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice although his feet never stopped moving. They did slow down to accommodate Haru's lack of experience, but it was as if his large feet were possessed.
"Hello, Mr. Rogers," she answered, trying to keep the disappointment out of her own voice as she tried to keep up with her new partner in spite of how much he was holding back for her. 'Am I really only worth being a pawn?'
This was too far. Everyone in town was here, and if they hadn't seen her get passed along like an unwanted food bowl, they would surely hear about it before the night was over. It didn't help that she knew a majority of them were rooting for her to end up with the newcomer, just to clear the path for Mai and Jonouchi since they really did make a handsome couple.
The poor brunette had never appreciated being treated like an unwanted spare, but it was especially hard to take in matters of courtship.
'Just finish the dance, Haru. Finish this song, go sit again and let this drama play out from the sidelines.' Haru used all her willpower to keep her head up and try to match his beat, but he was already doing something different she had no experience with. He was twirling both of them around, but Haru's eyes were locked on their feet so she wouldn't step on the long shovels that served the schoolteacher for shoes.
Mr. Rogers made a strange under sweeping bow, taking Haru for the ride. When they came up again, she was bunched tightly against Mai's side for only a second before Mr. Rogers whisked the taller blonde girl away.
Leaving her once again in Jonouchi's arms, now looking furious to be dancing with her.
Both of the men had traded her out like an old shoe. Neither of them thought she was worth a whole song.
Enough was enough.
"Thanks for the dance," Haru smiled through clenched teeth, taking a step backward and accidentally colliding with Kikyou, who was dancing with her husband around her baby bump. "Sorry," she apologized without looking behind her as she started walking back to her seat.
"Wait, Haru," Jonouchi tried to follow her, but he stopped cold when the poor girl wheeled around to give him a glare that almost flamed.
"Drag me into your drama again, and kiss your unbroken leg goodbye," she snarled in a low tone that she hoped the music was drowning out.
No such luck. The couples closest to them gave Haru a startled glance. She was usually in better control of her temper than this.
But Jonouchi got the message, at least. He even looked like he realized just how cruel his actions were to a girl he really only knew by sight.
Such was no longer Haru's concern. She returned to her seat on the bench, which was still warm from a lack of willing dance partners.
'That's the problem with living in a small town,' she concluded after sitting and smoothing out her generous red skirt. 'It gets a little too obvious when someone doesn't have a sweetheart.'
It shouldn't be that hard. The human race would have died out almost immediately if it was this hard on everybody.
She felt a sudden weight on one knee, making her look down without much surprise.
The schoolteacher's Great Dane had always seemed to enjoy her company more than his master. He had his big head on her leg, looking up at her with his black liquid eyes as he whimpered for attention. She scratched his ears without any real enthusiasm, wishing that her father would let her bring a book or some knitting to parties like this, since the only company she could ever attract usually had four legs instead of two.
ooOoo
Having been informed after the last dance, the schoolteacher kept a firm grip on his large dog's collar, looking like he needed one himself as he openly salivated at the tables groaning with food.
Haru went out of her way to grab an extra amount for when that dog inevitably came whining at her later and sat back in her usual seat with a nice tall mug of tea.
At least Mai's cooks were skilled. It helped take the edge off of being forced to come to a party where she never felt that wanted anyway.
"Are these seats taken?" Tsuge asked as he and his wife came with their own plates.
"By you, I believe," Haru answered politely, still staring off into space as she waited for everyone else to finish grabbing food.
Only after everybody got their loaded plates were the schoolteacher and his dog allowed to polish off the rest of the dinner table like it was their personal plate, barely remembering to even use the oversized serving utensils.
It was not a small amount of food.
"Absolutely disgusting," Kikyou muttered darkly under her breath.
"I agree," Haru answered while delicately eating perfectly prepared meat balls like the lady everyone insisted she should be. "It's an injustice that he can eat like that and look like a bean pole."
The pregnant woman looked up from the bread roll she had been angrily devouring. "Table manners!" she clarified while her mouth was still full.
At least, Haru was sure that was what she said. "That too," she agreed blandly, since bringing up the pregnant woman's own table manners might look like a suicide, even with witnesses.
Tsuge gave her a nervous but grateful smile that his wife couldn't see, revealing the wisdom in her prudence.
This part of the evening wasn't so bad. Now that everyone was resting from the dancing and sating their appetites, volunteers could speak up one by one to share stories.
The first one was a recounting of how their grandfathers settled in the area, by one of the original settlers that had literally watched the town grow up with him. The second story was about the war it took in order to stay, told by the son of the first town leader.
Haru was just getting comfortable with the atmosphere of the room when Jonouchi stood up from his place on one side of Mai to speak next.
As expected, the schoolteacher was on her other side the minute he and his dog had licked the last of the feast into oblivion.
"It was the uncle of Kamaji here that that paid a heavy price for our freedom," he began while gesturing at the previous speaker.
Haru's mood, which had slowly been recovering from the embarrassment of the dance floor, immediately turned even darker than when she realized what her 'dance partner's plan had been.
"A scout of the retreating army, enraged that he and his comrades had failed in their goal of reclaiming the land, swung his sharp sword as hard as he could at his enemies, cutting clean through the neck of Fujio Pom, the finest horseman that ever galloped over our fair hills."
Haru didn't realize that her bread roll was taking on the unfortunate appearance of an old sock in her suddenly irritated grip.
Jonouchi glanced at her, just now remembering how much the girl despised this story. He hesitated for a second, wondering if it was really wise for him to go on.
"Oh, finish the story," Mai urged while barely sparing a glance at her cousin. "Anyone that doesn't want to hear it is more than welcome to leave the party a little early."
If Haru had come by herself, or at least could delude herself that her father wouldn't punish her for walking home alone this late, the brunette would have been overjoyed to do exactly that. Her father didn't come because of a leg injury from the fields, and her sister-in-law was too far along in her own pregnancy for her husband to have considered leaving her behind or allowing her to stay up so late.
Unfortunately, Haru wasn't cruel enough to ruin her stable hand's night with his girl, especially since it was hard to get enough time to see her during the harvest season. The dark-haired youth gave her a glance from the other side of the room, both knowing why this story upset her and grateful that she wasn't demanding to be taken home immediately. She bit into her crushed roll with a silent wish that it was her cousin's perfect face that she was tearing with her teeth.
Mai gave a smug little smile like she could hear the silent wish.
Jonouchi still didn't seem comfortable with offending Haru twice in the same night, but at the bidding of his childhood sweetheart, he did continue. "Where the brave man was buried, no man alive knows for sure, though his treasured mount is rumored to be buried with him, dead of a broken heart for his beloved master. But death does not come easily to a man renowned for such bravery on the field of battle. For his spirit still wanders these very hills, and on full moon nights, one can see him riding his great black horse through the woods he patrolled for his family and friends."
The blonde man temporarily forgot about upsetting Haru to turn enough to fix the petrified schoolteacher with a positively evil grin. "Sometimes? You can even see his head in one hand, as if he were eager to trade it for a… fresher one as soon as he can find one to his liking." He gave a cocky shake of his own head to send his medium blonde hair swaying a little and falling over his brown eyes. "One night, he even made a try for mine."
"Zoinks!" the schoolteacher yelped as his large dog hopped onto his lap and began whimpering fearfully. He held onto his dog just as deeply as it clung to him.
Mai gave him an annoyed look while scooting to the side to allow room for the dog. "Oh, you didn't know about that? Right, it was a little before you came this summer. Go on, Jonouchi! Tell him what happened," she urged, her purple irises twinkling with amusement at her suitor's distress.
Haru swigged the last of her tea down like it was alcohol before angrily chomping on the one cookie she was allowed for a desert.
Her father had always been a little too concerned about Haru getting fat, and it wasn't worth sneaking a slice of pie with all these witnesses around.
Just one more of life's joys denied to her, and for no reason other than her father's ego.
"So I had taken longer than expected with getting a deer," Jonouchi started his familiar tale, enjoying directing his words at the hapless schoolteacher for once. "It was dark by the time I got back to the forest surrounding the village, but I wasn't worried at the time since the full moon gave me all the light I needed. I found the familiar trail and was picking my way before reaching Fool Man's Rock when… he came!"
Despite his obvious intent to scare his rival, Jonouchi couldn't repress a shudder at the memory.
"He jumped clear over my head from the tall rock to land on the trail not that far from me, his huge batlike cape billowing from the jump. He turned his entire body and night-black horse to face me, sizing me up to see if my head was worthy for him."
Haru would have to check her hands for fingernail cuts when she got home. With all her food and drink demolished, partially due to the Great Dane that had circulated the room after the dining table was decimated, there was nothing she could grip but her hands or the plate.
There would be no end to the grief if her uncle went complaining to her father about a broken plate, but no one cared about a few little cuts on her palms from suppressed rage.
"Of course, I wasn't going to let go of my fine-looking head without a fight," Jonouchi boasted while gesturing at the appendage with a cocky smile. "So I challenged him to a race, first one to make it to our town bridge keeps my head. He seemed to like the deal because he urged his mount to run when I did. It was close, let me tell you. But thanks to my brilliant horsemanship-"
It was all Haru could do to keep herself from making a sound, though more than one person was looking at her like she was going to erupt at just one more word out of the town favorite.
It wouldn't be the first time Haru had interrupted a story about the local legend.
"I made it to the bridge first. When I turned around to announce my victory, the Headless Horseman had vanished like I had never been with anyone at all. Now, I know no one can match my Honda when I tell him to run, but I didn't just leave the specter in the dust. I could hear his horse's hoof steps gaining on me as I began crossing the bridge, a screech owl announced its presence, and then all was silent. No hooves, no sound, no trace."
Jonouchi leaned over just enough to look Mr. Rogers dead in the eye. "So if you know what's good for you, make for that bridge as fast as you can tonight. Because there's something about it that the Headless Horseman can't bear to cross."
Both schoolteacher and dog fainted in reply.
ooOoo
The servant struggled with Haru's cloak of navy blue. "Why is your cloak so heavy?" she complained, still looking a bit impressed when the slim girl grabbed it with one hand and casually threw it over her shoulders before tying the sturdy cord over her throat.
"I get cold easily," she answered shortly, relieved that the night was finally over. She wasted no time nodding at her uncle as he bid each guest goodbye.
"Thank you for not polluting the night with your opinion," her uncle sneered at her with his usual amount of special courtesy to her.
Haru pulled up the hood of her cloak. "Thank you for using tonight to once again prove that you and the townsfolk don't actually believe in headless ghosts," she responded a little too sweetly while refusing to break her stride out the door. 'I'm owed this much for keeping my mouth shut earlier.'
He started back in surprise. "What are you talking about, Haru? Of course I believe in the Headless Horseman! I've seen him too!"
"Really?" she deadpanned while pointing up at the dark evening sky, breathing in the fresh air of freedom. "Full moon tonight. It's All Hallow's Eve, the night for the likes of ghouls and ghosts… and you didn't think to schedule your party when guests could go home before dark instead of close to the witching hour?"
Kikyou gasped in fright as her husband tried too late to cover her ears.
"My, my. What a selection of heads you've provided for him. If he were real and wanted a new head, that is," Haru added, just to twist the knife in her uncle.
"Let's go home!" another villager almost bleated in terror, prompting others to flood out the door as quickly as possible.
Though surprised that they were taking her word for once, Haru quickly stepped to the side to watch in silent amusement as the startled horses neighed and strained against ropes that were quickly untied from fence posts. Others who had walked were nearly running for their own homes.
The only reason that it would be such a walk is because of just how much land her uncle owned.
"Now you've gone and done it!" he snapped angrily as the last of the panicked villagers fled out of his home. "You've ruined my party!"
"Your welcome for not saying that hours ago," Haru replied coolly as she began carefully picking her way to where the little wagon was waiting for her. "That really would have killed your party instead of waiting until people were already heading home."
"I will be speaking to your father about this, young lady!" he yelled at her, partially stepping out of the house to make sure that she could still hear him. "The next time I host a party, don't expect an invitation!"
That improved her mood a bit. "Can I get that in writing?" she asked eagerly, turning around so that he could get a rare glimpse of her smiling at him.
His face was turning a darker red than her dress. Turning on his heel, the blocky man stomped into his house and slammed the door.
That suited Haru just fine. Even before the sightings began, she had never gotten along with her uncle.
Or cousin.
Haru sighed as she rubbed her hands against Kuro's velvety nose. "I hope you had a better night than me."
The large brown horse pressed his nose against her in return, his own black eyes melting with nothing less than love for her. She rubbed her forehead against his, wishing that it could be this easy to bond with humans.
Mutual love and respect. What was so unreasonable about that?
"Um, Haru?" Jonouchi asked from behind her.
The small smile that was threatening to form on her lips immediately evaporated. "Thanks again for the dance," she informed him in a voice of ice without turning to look at him. "I'm never going to forget it. No matter how I try."
"Haru, I'm sorry," he tried while walking around her and the horse to speak face to face. "I was angry at seeing Mai dance with that scarecrow, he was hogging every song-"
"-and I only wanted one," Haru informed him without changing her tone, still rubbing her face against Kuro's. "Girls like Mai will always have someone to dance with her. I would be thrilled for one song with even a friend, but you've made it clear that you are no friend of mine. I should save all attempts at future dances for someone who doesn't need explanations on how feelings work."
She could almost hear him flinch.
She nuzzled the brown horse one more time before turning to the village favorite with a darker glare than before.
It was enough to even make him back away nervously.
"If you want me to believe you're sorry, march yourself back into her home this minute and have a long talk with Mai about what it is she actually wants out of you and possibly Mr. Rogers. Because her games are getting out of hand, and I'm not interested in being part of the damages."
They both looked up when Machida finished placing something in the back of the wagon. "Let's head home, Haru," he begged her with a nervous smile as he almost frantically untied the lead holding Kuro in place.
Haru hiked up her red skirt enough to get into the wagon's seat. "I mean it," she snarled at Jonouchi as her stable hand nearly jumped into the seat with her.
He flinched again from her tone but managed a nod and turning to go back inside as Machida flicked the reins almost desperately.
Haru sighed heavily as the wagon began bouncing on the dirt road a good deal quicker than really warranted. But she did little more about it than take a firm grip on her wooden seat since her thoughts were chaotic enough. "Machida? Am I really repulsive enough to earn what happened?" she asked miserably.
"No," he answered without thinking, intent on leaving her uncle's lands as soon as possible. "I'd have interfered, but Hiromi promised to never talk to me again if I left her on the dance floor."
"That's fair," Haru sighed, glad that her little comment wouldn't affect Hiromi that much.
She was Mai's maid, and lived in the servants' quarters at her uncle's farm. If it weren't for those two facts, there might have been a chance for a friendship. But Haru knew Mai enough not to bother trying her luck with Hiromi. For all she knew, Mai was already encouraging Hiromi to convince Machida to spill some secrets to embarrass her cousin if she was bored enough.
But Haru wasn't worried about that. It would have been obvious by now if Machida had betrayed her, and it was in his own best interest to keep her secrets. She had made sure of that long ago.
"Start rubbing your cape," Machida whispered low enough not to be heard over the sound of the turning wheels.
That made Haru snap out of her self-pity as he turned off the well-traveled road between her father's farm and the rest of the little town and to a side road leading into the woods. "Now? You can't be serious!" she hissed under her breath.
"Just start rubbing your cape," he begged her, turning enough so that she could see the panic in his eyes as he reined in Kuro behind a large bush that blocked them from view of the road or her uncle's estate.
Haru had thought until that point that he had been faking his worry so that no one would think of him specifically, but there was no point to holding onto the façade when it was just her. She obediently untied the cloak from her shoulders and placed her hand on a seemingly innocent seam.
One firm rub revealed six tiny hook and eyes falling away from each other without a whisper.
"What's going on?" Haru asked as her experienced hands repeated the gesture down the fake seam.
Machida was already unhooking Kuro from the wagon. "I overheard Mai and Shaggy talking about you."
Her heart froze. She looked up at him in the soft moonlight and tried to brace herself for why that was bad news.
"He tried to propose, Mai turned him down," Machida explained while sparing an affectionate rub at Kuro's dark mane. "There was a bit of arguing, but by the time I slipped away, she about had him convinced to go 'talk to your father' in the morning."
Haru's stomach could have fallen out in that moment. Without her consent, she could see her life pass before her eyes, but not the part she had already lived.
Her father would agree to the match. Mr. Rogers was easily the most unusual man the county had ever seen, but he was well-liked and respected for his intellectual gifts and his sense of humor, and his dog was universally adored by the children. Her father was getting worried enough about Haru's age that he'd consent to the first man that asked.
Mr. Rogers would undoubtedly come live on her father's farm with her. It had been long suspected by everyone that the schoolteacher was more interested in a permanent home and a well-stocked kitchen than actually having a wife.
He and his dog would eat through her dowry in less than a week.
She would be condemned to live the rest of her life under her father's thumb, and then her brother's and sister-in-law's when he inherited everything. The fact that Mai was an only child that would inherit the largest farm in the county while Haru was only receiving a dowry from the second biggest farm had probably been a factor of why the local boys had been drooling over only her cousin since the girls' childhood.
Her brother would absolutely lord his position over her. He did it often enough as only the heir to the farm. He and his wife would have no qualms over threatening Haru and her husband with eviction if they didn't do exactly as they were told. Mr. Rogers earned so little that if they were kicked out and possibly disgraced by her family, that they would become vagabonds all too easily. It was one thing for the town to take turns sheltering just a man and his dog, but his wife too?
Being able to eat was going to be impossible. Both Mr. Rogers and his dog could eat enough to gorge an army.
… Children! What if she had children with him, with his appetite?! Haru had heard more than one story about a poor mother dying by giving her food to her children for too long! Noble? Yes. Something she would sign up for?
He was a light sleeper, and a coward. Not only would she never know peace with him and even be forced to give up her cat to accommodate his dog, she would have to live the rest of her life knowing that her husband hadn't ever really wanted her in the first place.
Haru increased the speed of her rubbing until her cloak puddled over her lap and twice the size it had been before. She then stood up from her place on the wagon with the cloak in one hand. "This is no good," she fretted while looking down at her red dress.
Machida pulled off both his brown shirt and cloak, handing them to her before using a bit of extra rope on the loose straw he hadn't had the time to dispose of before the party thanks to some extra chores.
Haru pulled the shirt on thankfully and buttoned it as high as she could manage and folded the collar inward to cover as much of her dress and skin as possible before tying the cloak over the front of her like an apron since it wasn't big enough to cover all of her skirt. She then made the short jump onto Kuro's bare back, who nearly began prancing with delight as his breathing increased.
By day, a mute horse was merely an unimportant piece of scenery. But at night, his inability to neigh or make a sound other than breathing and hoof steps made him a creature of supernatural origin.
"You can still see the red," Haru fretted as she put the hood back over her head and opened the drawstring enough to let the fabric billow out like a frog's throat.
"Knowing Shaggy, it won't matter," Machida assured while handing two small bales of hay up to her.
Grimacing against the texture, since she had two small pillows back in her room for this purpose, Haru carefully placed one on either side of her head and tightened both the drawstring and the cords that had come loose with the extra fabric to hold everything in place. Haru grabbed at the small handkerchief that had also been hiding in the extra material and drew it over the lower part of her face to hook it into one of the vacated eye slots. The embroidery now lying over her nose would help with the illusion that anyone that looked at her would see buttons on the chest instead of eyes, since she really did need to see where she was going.
"The final touch," Machida insisted while handing up to her a withered pumpkin, obviously filched from her uncle's decorations. It even had an evil face carved into it, but it looked old and wrinkled after being outside for too long.
Haru held it experimentally in one hand before steadying it in front of her and holding her brown horse's reins in the other. "Normally, I'd say this is too much."
"But you deserve to be happy, too," Machida insisted before sitting next to the wagon's large wheel to keep out of sight. "Go get him."
Haru would have nodded, but the straw compressed to either side of her head was already irritating her cheeks. Grateful that she had already trained Kuro how to obey her on a bare back, she turned her beloved mount to the woods and carefully set a pace that wouldn't make a lot of noise.
At the speed which Machida had left her uncle's farm, she shouldn't have too much trouble intercepting her prey. She reached a favorable place of concealment on his favorite path to the schoolhouse and urged Kuro to kneel so that the man would have as little warning as possible.
Haru felt like a jerk as she lay in wait. This was the first time she had ever actually tried to ambush anyone. Normally what happened is that she was seen or stumbled across someone by accident. Her lips curled into a snarl of contempt as she thought about Jonouchi's story.
From where she had seen it, Haru had been just as startled to see him as the other way around. She also couldn't seem to remember any bets or challenges made for his head, but she did remember him turning Honda to the churchyard trail and retreating as quickly as he could coax out of his mount, with his own prey flopping behind him against the back of the saddle.
She had been in a bad mood that night as well. She knew she shouldn't have pursued him to the bridge, but it was a little funny to see the 'man without fear' running from her like she was the angel of death, and one of her lesser tricks had taken her from his sight at just the right time to make it look and sound like she had vanished into thin air.
… Mai's games had gone too far?! What about this charade Haru's been doing for years?!
'This is different,' she mentally scolded herself. 'Mai intentionally uses people as toys because she gets bored easily. I do this to keep from killing anyone, including myself.'
Especially herself. But tonight was something she doubted she was going to take pleasure in, even if it probably was her last chance to ride before the winter storms came. Gold digger or not, she knew the school master wasn't a bad man, and she would definitely miss his dog.
She would not, however, miss the task of trying to keep the two fed when they would spend their customary week at her father's farm while her father tried to arrange for the two to become better acquainted.
Nervous, light steps were beginning to be heard on the path as well as a familiar high-pitched laugh that almost sounded like a cry.
"Absolutely ridiculous, right old buddy, old pal?! I mean, we go through these woods all the time, and never see ghosts!"
Haru felt even more like a jerk than before as Mr. Rogers and his dog slowly came into view, both visibly jumping every time an owl hooted or a frog croaked in the night.
It was clear that Jonouchi had done half of the work for her with that badly jarred story. At least he had done some good this night for her. Haru patiently waited for her prey to pass, and for him to reach a certain spot on the path before patting Kuro's neck to slowly get to his feet.
As she calculated, their combined shadow fell over both dog and master in an ominous way that the full moon was more than happy to assist in. The two stopped dead in their tracks for a solid minute before Mr. Rogers was able to force himself to turn enough to look at her in sync with his Great Dane.
The moonlight washed out the color of her horse and clothing until she looked like she was clothed in deepest black, and Haru already knew that the man's imagination was seeing the pumpkin cradled gently in front of her as a head.
That was one of the worst parts of her predicament. The fact that she needed to do so little to convince the citizens of her sleepy little town that there was a-
"Zoinks! It's the Headless Horseman!" Mr. Rogers screamed at the top of his lungs as his light brown hair came out of its little ponytail to stand on end around his plain face. "He's real! Help!"
It could have been Haru's imagination, but she could have sworn that she had heard the Great Dane scream 'oh no!'
They immediately turned and began running. Haru galloped after them, knowing from experience that she'd have little trouble making this pursuit look genuine enough to scare the man out of town for good.
It made Haru feel a little better that one of his many skills was running. There was no telling what she would have done if he had fainted instead.
His students would suffer from this. Their town was so remote, the town leaders wouldn't be able to get a new schoolmaster until spring. The students would be nearly a year behind in learning. His musical students would also go without instruction.
He did an impressive leap over a shallow creek as his dog splashed up a storm. Haru simply urged Kuro to jump completely over it, making the points of her cape that were usually hidden from sight billow out in a proud display for only a second.
One thing Haru's father loved to preach to her over and over, was that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. Strictly speaking, she knew full well that what she was doing was wrong, and that there was a chance that this night would scar Mr. Rogers for life. He wouldn't be likely to set foot in any small town after this.
He and his dog tried to lose her by a few sharp turns. Such a pity that she had run over this ground often enough to already have trained counter-measures into her beloved steed, who took them like a champ.
If she were as good of a person as she wanted to be, she should bite the bullet and accept the fate that seemed aligned for her. She was just one person, after all, and lots of girls had husbands that didn't really want them.
Which was worse; marriage to the schoolteacher, or no marriage at all?
Haru didn't hold back on pelting that scrawny coward with the pumpkin after he and his dog managed to cross the bridge. It was a surprisingly good hit, and after Mr. Rogers was able to get to his feet, neither he nor his dog thought to grab his fallen hat before hightailing it down the path leading away from the village instead of the one leading up to his schoolhouse, where he would spend the night when he forgot to make other arrangements or just couldn't bear to stay outside long enough to get to another residence.
His and his dog's screams of terror echoed through the hills long after he was out of sight.
Her own future secure for the moment, Haru patted her mount lovingly on the neck before turning around to get back to Machida.
'I am a monster.'
xxXxx
This is my commentary on how the shorter girl in Disney's Sleepy Hollow might have felt if she had realized what was going on at the dance, as well as the overwhelming similarity between Ichabod Crane and Shaggy from Scooby Doo in body, paranoia, and ridiculously huge appetite. If anyone didn't catch it, Shaggy's real name is Norville Rogers. Mai, Jonouchi and Honda are all borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh.
Also, I was originally going to make Tsuge the stable hand, but I've got some one-shots planned that are a little mean to Machida, and I thought it was only fair to throw the man a bone for this story.
Happy Halloween 2020, everybody!
This isn't the last time the Headless Horseman shall ride!